Omake to Soul Searching
by Rico Perrien
Summary: An additional event, inspired by Chapter 8 of Soul Searching by Chem Prof. Published with his permission


Author's Note: This story was inspired as an omake (or alternate scene) in the middle of Chapter 8 of the story Soul Searching, by Chem Prof. Words in italics are his (so that you can locate the passage more easily and set up the context), while words in normal typeface are mine. It is published here with his kind permission.

Seriously AU. Rating T

Warning (if needed): Partial nudity and serious embarrassment, that's all.

_Harry had started to develop a fun-loving side himself. Any tendency toward mirth on his part had been totally stifled by the Dursleys, so being with a family who loved to laugh was a life-changing experience for him. As the son of a Marauder, it should have been no surprise that he would have inherited a similar nature, and he had begun to come back with pranks of his own on Hermione. He was also delighted to learn that she had such a fun side to her. He was enjoying being with her more than he had ever thought possible. He smiled to himself as he recalled an assessment he had made of her years ago: __"There was a lot less fun, and a lot more studying in the library, when Hermione was your best friend."__ That was certainly no longer the case._

_Meanwhile, Hermione decided that she wasn't done teasing for today. When he was down at the other end of the pool, she slipped into the pool and started swimming laps of her own. She had put her top back on, but he was about to get an up close look at her thong bottom. It didn't take him long to notice that she was in the pool with him or what she was wearing. He stopped at one end as she approached, trying to keep his eyes focused on her head and shoulders. Suddenly, just as she approached his end, she bent her body at a right angle with her head straight down, which brought her bottom and legs right up to him. He was left with nothing else to look at. Her legs eventually followed her under the water as her upper body twisted in the other direction. Finally, her legs pushed off the side and she was headed back to the other end of the pool, leaving Harry standing open-mouthed. The next time she came down to his end he had recovered, and was deliberately looking in the other direction. She completed the tease by stopping and asking him if he thought he had his heart rate high enough, or if she should take her top back off and do the backstroke for a while. She couldn't stop laughing for the next several minutes from the look on his face. _

She resumed swimming her laps, but this time Harry was waiting for her. As she did her tumble-turn in front of him, he reached out and caught the ends of the ties on her swimsuit bottom. As she pushed off, the knots untied, and the bottom of her suit came completely off. In shock, she turned to face Harry, who was holding the bottom of her swimsuit in his hand and smirking at her – there was no way, according to Harry's expression, that the collection of strings and the scrap of material he held could ever be described as 'pants'. His eyes widened, and she realized that the water did not totally obscure the view of her lower body, and it would be quite obvious to him that although she might trim, she did not shave. She spun around, blushing frantically, to see her mother sitting up and laughing uproariously.

Emma called over "I don't know what you're upset about. You were the one sticking your bum in his face!" With her comment, Harry looked over to her, and blushed himself. Emma had forgotten that she had been suntanning in her usual mode, and her untethered breasts were shaking with her laughter.

Hermione turned back towards Harry, her mind quite rattled. She had been pushing Harry's sensibilities awfully hard over the summer, over and over. As soon as he seemed to have accepted one level of what might be described as 'partial nudity', she increased the pressure by decreasing the coverage, and she feared she had finally pushed him too hard. He had led a forcibly sheltered life, and he was after all a teenaged boy. She kept telling herself that they were just best friends, but her body was telling her that it wanted something more from him. Her nipples became very apparent through her top, and she could see Harry's eyes looking her up and down

As she blushed, she said sternly, "Harry, my eyes are up here!".

He responded "Mine are, too", as she realized that she was quite obviously staring at his physical reaction to her state of attire. Harry's tight swimsuit was allowing very little room for his own reaction. She responded with a bit of a squeak, and blushed all over.

His face got a mixed look of both lust and horror. The lust, Hermione could understand, as in the back of her mind (and parts lower), she felt the same. The horror told her she had gone too far, and so had he, and he had just realized it too.

Harry couldn't decide whether his body's reaction to Hermione's state of undress was something to welcome, or not. Her look of confusion, and her own body's reaction told him that the teasing may have gone too far, and this led to a dangerous path. There was obviously physical attraction between the two, which they both had been attempting to ignore, or at least deny, but both of their bodies made it very apparent that the attraction was there in spades.

Harry Potter took a deep breath and considered the bridge he had just set on fire – it had not yet completely burned, and he just might be able to beat a hasty retreat. He handed Hermione her swim suit bottom, and said "Sorry. Couldn't resist, force of habit. Seeker, you know."

Hermione retrieved her suit from him and turning away, took a deep breath as she collected her thoughts. Turning back to him, she said, "Harry, I'm sorry. I've been pushing your sensibilities pretty hard this summer. It's all my fault."

Harry shook his head, and smiling said "No problem. I've enjoyed the summer. I'm okay with it, if you are." The two teenagers leaned into a hug to indicate to each other that they had made and accepted their apologies.

Both of them stiffened suddenly as they realized that, in their haste to repent their previous actions and make amends, they had forgotten something important. Harry felt the strings of Hermione's swimsuit bottom dangling down his back, as she simultaneously realized that she had not put it back on yet and it was still in her left hand. It was also obvious that Harry's body's reaction was still present, and Hermione's abdomen had just run into it, in her current rather immodest state.

He looked over to where Emma was convulsed in laughter as well. Having a middle-aged lady laughing at the situation just made things worse and worse. Hermione looked over at her mother, and uncharacteristically started to giggle like a little girl.

There are few things more embarrassing to a teenage boy than girls laughing at his very apparent (and usually spontaneous and unwanted) erection, which also make the condition and the embarrassment even worse.

He said, "I think I had better swim for a bit", and began frantically swimming the length of the pool with all of his might. Where his skill had reached the point where he could swim with a smooth efficient stroke, now he was splashing furiously.

After reapplying her garment, Hermione swam over to the edge of the pool near her mother and buried her face in a towel to muffle her laughter.

_When he had finally finished his laps, _quiteexhausted,_ dried off, and gone inside, she returned to the lounge chair by Emma where they both collapsed with tears of laughter._


End file.
